


Crimson as a Rose

by EthelPhantom



Series: As Its Thorns And Petals [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Rose Souls, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, MariBat, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is Kindness Personificated, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is a Sweetheart, No one important though I swear, or then it's Jason but he's alive again so it's fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-08 03:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21469207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EthelPhantom/pseuds/EthelPhantom
Summary: Deafening silence after an ear-piercing scream. Unforgiving crimson flowing and staining the dry ground.That’s how it had been for longer than he could remember, though this feeling was new.A quick glance at his rose confirmed what he had already suspected — the last of the petals had fallen away.They had broken him.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Series: As Its Thorns And Petals [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1572100
Comments: 28
Kudos: 437





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You ever go like "I'm gonna be strong and not write anything for this fandom" and then a few days later find yourself writing a fanfic for said fandom? Because I seem to do that quite a lot. 
> 
> Anyway, in this AU, the souls of the people who have a rose are literally the personifications of said roses. The petals are the mirror of their love and empathy towards others, while thorns are their sharp edges, their pain, sarcasm, sadism, all that. You can lose all the petals without having the flower die, it's just really not an ideal situation. But yeah. There are only a handful of such people, and it's usually kept a secret since said roses can be used to hurt their humans a lot.
> 
> Also please, if you do not like MariBat, please just go away now. I'd rather not get any unpleasant comments.

Deafening silence after an ear-piercing scream. Unforgiving crimson flowing and staining the dry ground. 

That’s how it had been for longer than he could remember, though this feeling was new. 

A quick glance at his rose confirmed what he had already suspected — the last of the petals had fallen away. 

_ They had broken him. _

The thorns were sharper than ever, dripping blood as Jason scratched his hand on them. It explained why shooting the person now laying on the ground was so satisfying. He’d thought it was merely because the bastard had tried to assault the little girl, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. 

His laughter echoed in the otherwise so silent night. Perhaps it was a little hysterical, but why should he care? _ No one else did either. _

And that’s how days kept on going. There was no one he could return to, because his adopted father didn’t care about him. His only family forgotten he existed. As far as they were aware, he was dead, but they had simply gone on without sparing him another thought. There was no mention of them grieving, hell, there was no mention of him dying other than a short comment on some unknown newspaper. 

They hadn’t even tried to avenge him. No one had.

But what they _ had _done… 

_ They’d replaced him. _

There was now another little bird running on the roofs of Gotham after that man, probably trying to get his approval. His _ replacement _ seemed to mean more to everyone than he ever did — and so Jason got the hell out of Gotham. He decided he wasn’t going to stay there.

Maybe someone else would accept him. 

But, as the days went by, the possibility of it grew smaller and smaller. Wherever he went, people called him a freak for carrying around his rose everywhere, resented him when they found out he had hardly any empathy left, and drove him out once he’d killed someone. 

While he left gladly, he didn’t want to be near them anymore, he couldn’t understand what their problem was. The ones who met their end by his hand always deserved it. They hurt other people — they murdered, raped and assaulted women and children, they were involved in human trafficking, they tore families apart. 

_ Monster _, they screamed at him as they threw rocks at him and drove him away. 

They didn’t even know his name. 

_ You ruined their lives _, they justified their actions and themselves as they refused to let him defend himself. 

Those people ruined the lives of so many other people. 

Why was he the only one to blame?

And finally, finally he decided to give up on the hope that someone would one day accept him and his flaws. 

Or so it was until _ that day _anyway. 

He’d lost his rose, unable to find it anywhere. He’d been searching for it for hours, with no results. He’d gone through the entire City of Lights yet he couldn’t find anything. It seemed someone had either stolen it, or he’d dropped it when he was in the forest near the city where he was residing.

And yet he still couldn’t find it anywhere on any of the paths he used. 

Jason hit the wall of his hut, frustrated the hell out of his mind when he heard steps coming up from behind him. He whipped his head towards the source of the sound, only to find a young woman standing there.

_ With a rose with no petals in her hands. _

“Excuse me, I believe this belongs to you”, she said with a quiet voice and handed the rose to Jason. 

“How did you find it or this place and how did you know it was mine?”, he snapped, all but yanking the flower out of the woman’s hands. 

“It was lying down somewhere near my home, so I picked it up. It needed to be returned to its owner, but as I of course didn’t know whose it was, I asked it. Your rose told me to come here and said that its human lived here, though it took me a while to find the place”, she replied, her voice wavering only a little as he stared her down. It was impressive. Usually people wouldn’t speak like that to him, especially not if they were alone. 

“Great. Now, get out of my sight, girl.”

Jason turned away to go inside, but the woman reached out her hand and grabbed his. “Wait, what’s your name?”, she asked. 

That was a question that stopped him. 

No one had asked for his name, not once since he left Gotham. 

Why did this woman care? 

Jason didn’t reply, though. He grabbed her wrist and raised it above her head, scowling at her. “The hell it concerns you. Go away, now”, he said and let go before turning on his heel and slamming the door behind him shut. He did not look back to see if she had stayed. 

A few days later, Jason found himself alone again. He’d tried to help a mother with children when someone had harassed her, but she’d told him to leave her alone, that she didn’t need help from a freak, a monster, a creature of hell. Then she’d stood up and called her children along, walking away from him. 

People were despicable. 

“Are you alright?”, a gentle voice asked. Jason was sure the person had directed it at someone — anyone — else in the area until he realised there was no one else aside from him and the voice there. He turned around, only to find the young woman from earlier behind him. She was smiling at him with gentle eyes, no deception visible. 

Again, _ why did she care? What did she think she could get from her if she pretended to care about him? _

“None of your business, kid. Leave me alone.”

“I’m not a girl, though, I’m an adult. And yes, it is my business — I saw your rose. You’ve been hurt so much you’ve lost yourself.”

Why did she have to sound so genuine about it? He almost wanted to tell her everything. 

What kind of magic was she using?

_ And how did she understand what his rose meant? _

“Why are you so persistent about this?”

“Because I want to be your friend. Now, what’s your name? I’m Marinette.”

“That’s such a horrible decision, wanting to get close to me.”

“Oh well, would not be my first horrible decision. Do you want a macaron?”, she asked, offering a small box full of colourful cookies to him. 

He took one, hesitating. This woman — Marinette — was so kind to him. She had no reason to be so friendly, so welcoming, and yet that’s exactly what she did. She seemed so… genuine, too.

Warmth spread in his chest as he took a bite, watching Marinette’s reactions. She kept smiling, there was still not even a hint of deception or ill will in her — hell, the only thing that changed in her as he ate the macaron she’d offered was that she seemed to start radiating warmth and happiness, as though she’d achieved something great by getting him to taste her sweets. 

“Do you like it?”, she asked tilting her head, but kept her distance to him. He wasn’t sure whether it was out of respect or something else. 

“Yes… It was good”, he responded, not sure what to make of this woman. She was strange, not put off by his behaviour, seeming like she was genuine about her intentions to befriend him. 

It was like her mere presence cleared the sky from all the dark clouds that were always there, because it seemed his world brightened up the more and more every second she spent near him.

His answer made Marinette clap her hands a little before she spoke. “I’m so glad you like it! I was afraid you wouldn’t, but it seems my worries were unfounded.”

Somehow Jason found a small smile making its way to his lips as well. This sunshine, if a person could be called that, was slowly but surely worming her way to his heart. It seemed she had no intentions to leave it either. 

“So, what’s your name?”, she asked once more, looking deep into his eyes, her bluebell eyes boring into his very soul. She took a rose with blue on the tips of the few petals it had from her bag, presenting it to him. _ It was one of the few roses that held someone’s soul on this earth. _

_ She too was one of the very few souls that were personifications of roses and she trusted him with the secret. With her weakness. _

After a long, silent while, he finally replied. “Jason.”

A single petal got reattached to the rose as he repeated his words. He was confused and hesitant, but even so, he told her his name.

_ “My name is Jason.”_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, I have finished the second chapter that somehow went from 600 words to over one thousand when I was editing it. I don't know what happened I swear. Oh well. 
> 
> I hope you like this! It's a little happier than the previous chapter which is weird because I seriously only know how to write angst but oH WELL.
> 
> Also, thank you so much for the reception this got (on both tumblr and here) because like _god_ I swear I almost started crying at some point because I was so happy.__

Years later, someone knocked on the door of their shared apartment. He had moved in with Marinette a few years before. Both their roses stood proudly on the table in a vase, always together. Jason’s rose had long come together even if it was still missing a few petals — but that was fine. So was hers. They survived together. 

“Are you expecting someone, Sunshine?”, Jason called to the kitchen where Marinette was baking something yet again. While it was completely normal for her to randomly start craving things and just straight up go bake them at any time of the day, today it had been a little more than strange. Marinette had literally shot up all of a sudden and ran to the kitchen to bake accompanied by a few carefully selected curse words and a frantic and irritated “mon dieu”. Inviting guests and then proceeding to forget about it would get that reaction out of her, definitely.

“Oh yeah. Could you please open the door for me, Jay?”

“Anything for you, my sun", he replied with a smile on his face. 

A tall man with dark hair and black sunglasses stood in the doorway, looking like he wasn’t sure whether he was in the right place at all. 

“Is this the house of Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Todd?”, the man asked, trying to look behind him, probably to get a glimpse of his wife. His French was accented, and Jason could have almost bet he was from the US as well. It sounded a little too familiar though, so he was quite sure the man was from somewhere near where Jason had once lived. 

“Yes, this is her husband”, Jason replied, trying not to snarl at the man.This was Marinette’s guest, it wouldn’t do him good to snap at the stranger. His Sunshine wouldn’t be too happy about it. 

“That is wonderful. Could you either let me in or ask your wife to come here? She told me she wanted to talk to me about something important, something concerning one of my children.”

That took Jason by surprise. This man’s children? Could— 

No, he trusted Marinette. She would have told him if there was something as big as a child of hers before they got married. She wouldn’t hide such a thing from him. 

“Oh, Monsieur Wayne, you’re here! Great to see you’re on time. Come in, Jason can show you where the living room is, I’ll be there soon!”, she said happily and went back to the kitchen. 

(Bells started ringing in Jason’s head. The name Wayne sounded way too familiar. Why couldn’t he remember where he knew it?)

Jason took the man to the living room, about to leave when his wife yelled at him to stay there as well. She wanted him with her. That was comforting to know. It reassured him that there was indeed nothing going on behind his back, though he knew Marinette would never do anything to hurt him on purpose. He had simply been hurt too many times, it was natural that he was cautious. It was also okay to be that way as long as he didn’t let it control him.

(Or, that was what Marinette had told him anyway. Multiple times.)

When she returned, she had a platter full of red and black macarons with her. With a sweet smile, she offered both of them macarons before gesturing for them to sit down. She herself sat next to Jason and put a hand on his thigh, stroking it gently with her thumb. Jason pulled her closer to him. 

“So, Mrs Dupain-Cheng-Todd—”

“Please, call me Marinette.”

“Marinette, then. You contacted me and told me you know my son that I lost years ago? The one that I thought was dead?”

“Yes.”

And then Jason found the same, mischievous grin he’d gotten to know during the past years on her face. “This here is Jason Todd, my husband. Your son.”

The man gasped and took off his sunglasses. The piercing blue eyes met his, and he finally recognised this man. 

_ Bruce Wayne.  _

His adoptive father that gave up on him.

And Marinette had brought him into their home.

Jason was ready to stand up and leave, angry at anything and everything he could think of, but Marinette held his hand tightly in hers, not leaving him a chance to go. He could probably get away even then, but there was no way he was risking harming her by doing it. There was absolutely no question about it, so Jason sat back down. She rubbed the back of his hand softly, calming him down a little.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding — or multiple of them — and I want him to be whole again. If what is needed for that is to mend what was left broken after  _ that _ , I will do my everything to help that happen.”

“You are truly a kind person, Marinette.” Turning back to Jason, his gaze softened and he smiled. “Jason? Is it really you? You aren’t dead after all? I— I thought I lost you forever.”

“Well, clearly not. Don’t pretend to care now — you didn’t care back then”, he spat, only to receive a glare from his wife. 

“Jason, don’t be rude. What have we talked about assuming the worst of people? Your rose is still incomplete. Mine will never mend because my master died, but yours can still be healed. I want you to be happy. I’m sure there have simply been too many grave misunderstandings and a lack of communication on both ends, but those can be corrected if you just  _ talk them out _ ”, she said in Basque. 

It was a language they’d decided to learn in case they needed to talk about anything more private in front of others since there weren’t many who spoke it. Of course she used it in when talking about their roses. She knew how uncomfortable it made him to let others know about the roses and she respected it. When he’d told her the first time, she’d simply nodded and went to find out what language they could learn to be able to talk about them without needing to be afraid of others finding out most of the time.

And she still kept it on in front of his father.

“Fine. I’ll do it for you”, he replied again in French. A smile found its way to his lips as his wife shot a bright smile at him. 

“Jason, I swear, I did care. I still do. I would have not come all the way to France if it wasn’t for you, if it wasn’t because I care about you”, Bruce said and swallowed down a lump in his throat before he spoke again. “I was devastated when I found you dead and blamed myself for a long time for it. You were and still are my child, and it was horrible for me to lose you. I’d love to have you back in the family, but I understand if you want nothing to do with us and especially if you never want to come back to Gotham. It would be good enough for me to hear from you every now and then. I’m sorry we made you feel like you couldn’t return to us.” 

Jason sighed. He didn’t know what to think of his father. On one hand, he wanted to believe Bruce was telling the truth and meet the family he left behind long ago to build a new one again, but on the other hand he was ready to throw him out of the house and tell him to never speak to him again. That would definitely upset his wife as she had probably had to do quite a lot to convince Bruce Wayne himself to speak to her because she wanted to help him heal completely. 

But, even though he was more inclined to go with the second option, he chose to get to know his family again, if only for Marinette.

“Fine. I accept your apology, though I’m not ready to forgive you.”

“That’s alright. I didn’t expect you to be.”

“I’m not doing this for any of you though, I’m doing it only because Marinette put so much effort into organising this, you understand?”

“Of course.”

Bruce smiled at him and Marinette squeezed his hand. Something told him he had made the right choice, albeit the hard and irritating one.

And well. They did solve things. It was slow, because  _ god _ was there a lot of baggage and so many deep grudges, but after a year or two, Marinette and Jason were waiting on an airport, ready to go to Gotham. Go back to the place Jason had sworn he’d never set even a foot in again.

But he was going with Marinette — who’d promised not to leave his side as long as she had a say in it — to meet his family again, the family that apparently did not give up on him. The family that grieved him for a long time but couldn’t just show it in public. He was the luckiest man in history to have met Marinette and have her fall in love with him. She kept going out of her way for him, to make him happy. 

Maybe, just maybe, he’d be alright with this. 

The two of them stepped out of the airplane only to be greeted by a huge welcoming committee that was the official Wayne family, as well as most of the honorary Waynes. Jason looked at Marinette, who simply smiled at him and squeezed his hand for encouragement. They would be fine, and most importantly, they would be _together_.

With their roses in their hands, Jason’s finally missing none of its petals, they walked up to the family that welcomed them with open arms and smiles (mostly, anyway, because they decided not to pay attention to the scowling young man that looked the most like Bruce). To the family that didn’t care they came to meet them only now because they had come anyway.

To  _ their family. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might add to this one day if people want more of this, but well. For now I don't have any plans. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the chapter so yeah, feel free to comment, I don't bite.  
...Probably. 
> 
> Come scream at me on my [Tumblr](https://ethelphantom.tumblr.com/)!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this!
> 
> So I should have studied to my French exam, sure, but I found writing this more entertaining although it was _difficult_. Oh well. Maybe I'll pass it without studying.__
> 
> _  
_Come scream at me on my [Tumblr](https://ethelphantom.tumblr.com/)!_  
_

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [You're my World](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24778267) by [RiceBullet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiceBullet/pseuds/RiceBullet)


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